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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #402564
Research Project: Advancing Knowledge of the Biology and Etiology of Bacterial Plant Pathogens Towards Management Strategies

Location: Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research

Title: Characterizing environmental sensing mechanisms in Dickeya dadantii

Author
item GONZALEX-TOBON, JULIANA - Cornell University
item Stodghill, Paul
item Filiatrault, Melanie

Submitted to: International Congress of Plant Pathology Abstracts and Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/14/2023
Publication Date: 8/20/2023
Citation: Gonzalex-Tobon, J., Stodghill, P., Filiatrault, M.J. 2023. Characterizing environmental sensing mechanisms in Dickeya dadantii. International Congress of Plant Pathology Abstracts and Proceedings. International Congress of Plant Pathology.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Bacteria sense their surrounding environment and move accordingly via chemoreceptor proteins in a process known as chemotaxis. These proteins play essential roles during the disease cycle. Members of the Dickeya genus, that cause disease on numerous crops and ornamental plants, present notoriously more methyl-accepting chemoreceptors (MCPs) than other closely related bacteria. However, the functions and signals of many of these MCPs remain un-known. Interestingly, long untranslated regions exist upstream of the coding regions of MCPs in Dickeya. We hy-pothesized these regions harbor small non-coding RNAs. Transcription start sites were identified using Cappable-seq and found to align well with the areas being transcribed, which were detected via RNAseq and validated via qRT-PCR, in vitro and in planta. Using biocomputational methods we identified potential promoters, putative regulatory sequences, and terminators in these regions. Together these results showed that such intergenic regions and MCP genes are actively transcribed in planta. Mutants lacking these regions, as well as lacking the MCP genes, showed differences in their ability to swim and swarm, compared to wild-type. Opposite patterns of motility were noticed among some MCP mutants and their corresponding upstream deletion mutants. Some mutants displayed altered symptoms in potato stems. Our results provide new insight into the sensing and signaling mechanisms used by Dickeya and provide targets for disease control.